I have quickly fallen in love with Grace Reilly's writing. I just love the way she tells a story, There is great plot, the character's always go through something but always come out on the other side, and the chemistry and spice between Nik and Izzy was really great. She gives you an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish. I devoured this series and I cannot wait for whatever she decides to write next. I can't believe it is over.

When I tell you that I loved this book and its characters…….I say it with my whole heart! I was not aware this wasn’t a standalone when I received…..but honestly…..I’m so glad I read it anyway!

The dynamics of the MC’s relationship is delicious…..summer fling turned romance….with a brother’s enemy vibe! These MC have DEPTH though! This is not another hockey romance…….this is a romance with complex deeply developed MC and one happens to play hockey!!

Nickolai and Isabelle……swoon.

Whoa! Very sexy, swoony, and well-done banter. I think this will appeal to fans of Meghan Quinn and Bal Khalabra. Hockey romance lovers will be obsessed. It’s also just a very lovely and well written story.

Wicked Serve

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishing for this advanced copy of Wicked Serve! I love a good sports romance but especially hockey romances.

Nikolai and Izzy were fun to get to know after seeing glimpses of them in Grace Reilly’s previous books. I thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in the McKee University world once again. My biggest complaint is I felt like I had read this book before, specifically The Deal. I’m a fan of that book so for me Wicked Serve was great!

I loved this book! This is the last book in the beyond the play series, where each book follows a different sibling and they each play a different sport. This whole series was so fun but while also covering serious topics. I am sad to see this series be over. I really liked Izzy and Nik's relationship. We have brothers rival, secret relationship, steamy romance. Nik's backstory is so devastating and sad and he does have to work through some things. I do wish we got more from the beginning of their relationship since we start the book with them already in a friends with benefits sort of deal. Also there were some scenes that seemed to be mostly fluff and not add a lot of things to the story. But overall I did enjoy this book a lot and I would recommend this whole series!

Wicked Serve is a cute, easy to read book. It takes two college sport athletes and mixes up a little romance in the midst of their family and sport issues. Isabelle is the only girl in a family of athletic boys and parents. Her dad is a retired footballer and she feels she never quite measures up. The need to excel at her sport, volleyball, takes front and center in her life. Nikolai is a star hockey player who has to transfer schools his senior year. He has his own family issues he needs to work through due to his famous hockey playing father. The two not only have to navigate their personal family issues, but they also have Isabelle's brother (who is a hockey player as well) to contend with in order to be together. This novel has a lot of personal growth for both characters and a lot of love and support for one another. They have to decide how to navigate their personal lives and their love life in order to be together. I would recommend this book to readers who like contemporary romance, sports romance, or chick lit.

I appreciate the attempt at a story about Izzy but this felt very contrived and a story about two immature people and honestly it was difficult to get through the book.

So many phrases in the book were cringeworthy.
The story and writing were lacking for me.
A lot of tantalizing scenes to try to keep the reader interested I guess?
Tried to wrap it up with a nice bow with Nik taking the Callahan last name and having a new family with being on the same team as her brother.
Just felt so ho hum.
Nothing original, nothing compelling and nothing worth noting.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher Avon for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of Wicked Serve by Grace Reilly.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC of this book for my honest review.

Wicked Serve is the 4th book in this series. You can read this without reading the rest, but also go back and read all the other Callahan sibling books. This book main character is Isabelle, the youngest of the Callahan children. I have read all the other stories and this one did not disappoint. Izzy falls in love with the Nikolai, on ice enemy of her brother Cooper. Izzy and Nikolai have their own struggles throughout the book that they have to deal with along with hiding their relationship in the beginning from Izzy's family.

Don't miss the final book in the Callahan series!

This is the fourth book in a series, I was going in blind having never read anything by this author. I attempted to read first book, First Down, a while ago. I read the blurb and decided to take a chance. I know this author is relatively known, I'm not sure if her popularity is organic or by Tik tok, which I usually steer away from.
Overall, I should probably stick to my guns about viral books. The author is a good at writing the story flow, I just did not like the plot. The whole premise of keeping their relationship secret made no sense to me, I know it is rival schools, but it is not emphasized in the story. There is no animosity being a rival from his new team. Is the author familiar with sports or non American, she keeps calling their jerseys sweaters?? The reason Nikolai got kicked out of his former school for drugs, but he has a really rich grandfather that can't get him a pass. is a little antiquated for a company to be inherited only by a boy/ preference for boy when his grandfather only had female children. The whole Izzy hospitalization plot is incredibly ridiculous, she gets mad, then drinks her pain away, then gets a concussion because of a boy. I understand she comes from a family that is athletic and the pressure she faces, but come on. Lastly, I didn't like the references "Legally Blonde," as an old movie, I knew then what the demographic this author was targeting and it made me feel old lol. Booktok books, I have found, are really for beginner readers who have graduated from young adult. I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 ⭐️

such a cute book and great end to the Callahan siblings! I loved this series and was so excited to read Izzy’s!

I normally don’t care for found family, if it’s there it’s there, but it was so good in this book!

Also, with forbidden romance, I usually like more conflict when other people find out about the relationship, and this is the only reason it’s not a 5 ⭐️. But the conflict with his father was a good storyline!

Thank you to NetGalley & HarperCollins Publishers for the arc!!

Without fail, Grace Reilly’s books always bring me immense joy. They are funny and sweet and feel so incredibly real.

Izzy and Nik have become one of my favorite book pairings. Meeting them after they already, deniably, started falling for each other was also a unique twist that I really loved. Watching them break down their walls and trust each other, and screw up too, made it easy to come to love them so quickly. Plus the spice was impeccable.

The Beyond the Play series is set up in a way that really feels like found family doesn’t even scratch the surface. It almost feels like catching up with friends from your home town.

A definite recommendation for me to anyone who’s looking for sports romances!!

3.5 Rounded up to 4 Stars

I was so happy to be back with the Callahan family in Wicked Serve. This time, we follow Izzy and her brother's hockey rival, Nik. I really enjoyed their dynamic and loved how the author wrote their issues.

At one point, I was worried it would turn into my most hated trope, miscommunication, but Grace really wrote these characters as mature adults. I appreciated that a lot.

Just a heads up: this book covers some heavy topics like physical and verbal abuse, and childhood trauma.

My only gripe is that it felt a bit too long. I think the story could have wrapped up sooner if some of the side characters’ stories were shortened.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and think it’s a perfect, easy summer read.

I'll round up to 4 stars, but this was a pretty solid 3.5 star book.

I hadn't read any of the previous books in the series, and it didn't change my enjoyment of the book at all. I thought this was a sweet story of a summer fling turned into a solid relationship. Izzy and Nik were a very cute couple and while their emotional maturity might not be realistic for a couple of 20/21 year olds, it did feel refreshing that the crux of the story didn't hinge on a simple misunderstanding. Izzy and Nik both confronted some deeper issues - history of abuse, deciding how to step out of the spotlight of your famous family members, and how to carve a path for yourself. Everything was light without feeling like the book was totally without substance. I enjoyed the plot and the spice (and...there is a lot of spice!) but nothing felt super memorable for me. This was fun to pick up when I had a spare moment, but I wasn't pulled to keep reading into the middle of the night or counting down the minutes until I could read this story again. The amount of supporting characters made it clear the characters had families and friends to rely on without being distracting to the story.

If you're looking for a quick beach read, this series is a good one to pick up. No need to read in order.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC!

4.5💗💗

I DIDN'T WANT IT TO END🥹, I love these Callahan siblings, it was very nice and fun to read each of their books.🤍

I seriously love how Grace writes, her books are very addictive and quick to read and the best thing is that they have double pov, I LOVE IT.🛐

I loved this book, I was already excited to read Izzy's book, (the last of the Callahan siblings) and the book was very good.🥹💗

Izzy and Nik's relationship was very beautiful, I LOVE THEM💗, I loved their dynamics, their interactions, the mutual support between them, the tension of these two omg and their hot moments OMG!, apart from HE SPEAKS TO HER IN RUSSIAN🫦🫦 (he's Russian), I'm seriously in love, everything was very good, and the best thing I loved was that there wasn't much drama or unnecessary drama, I really liked the whole development of the relationship, especially Nik and since he wanted to improve as a person, the two of them are perfect.🥹

The epilogue is VERY beautiful, I WANTED MORE, I'm going to miss them a lot, these books are very great.😩

To say no more and avoid spoilers haha, I really recommend this series of siblings, which is very cute, you can read them independently but it is much nicer to read them in order.💗

- Hockey X volleyball
- Family drama
- Obsessed boy
- Boy falls first
- Brother's rival-turned-teammate
- Secret relationship
- Dual pov


Thanks netgalley, Grace and avonbooks/harpervoyager for the arc

This was my first book in the Beyond the Play series but it won't be my last! I loved the Callahan family and I loved Nikolai and Izzy's story. They were so good for each other despite desperately trying to stay away from each other. Their relationship progressed so beautifully and I loved how they supported each other throughout the story.

Nikolai and Izzy have a summer fling while Izzy is interning for Nikolai’s mom. While they both think it’s going great, Nik leaves Izzy one morning because he doesn’t think he’s good enough for her. He doesn’t think it’ll be a problem since they attend separate colleges, but then he gets expelled from his school and his only opportunity to keep playing hockey is at the one school that just so happens to be where Izzy goes. Nik should be ecstatic about the prospect to see Izzy again, but the problem? Izzy’s brother is captain of the hockey team, and does not like Nik. The two decide to continue their relationship in private while Nik adjusts to the new school and new team. This proves to be difficult since Izzy lives with her older brother, and further when he and Nik unexpectedly start up a friendship.

This is the fourth book in the Beyond the Play series featuring the athletic Callahan siblings. Izzy is the youngest and only girl in the family so it was interesting getting her story. I had read the first book in the series, but skipped the other two as they all can be read as stand-alones. In my opinion, this book was unnecessarily long. At the halfway mark, there had already been a resolution to the main conflict yet the book continued to drag on. I did appreciate the dual perspectives of the main characters and the fact Nik didn’t try to rely on Izzy to solve his mental health issues/childhood trauma. I would probably not recommend this book to many people, but if I was going to I would suggest only picking it up if you liked the other books in the series, enjoy sports romance, and/or you’re 18+ due to mature themes in the book. Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for providing me this book in exchange for my honest review.

Okay, I haven't read any of the other books in the series...and yet I devoured this one! I was drawn to it because I've been enjoying hockey romances lately...but I also played volleyball for ten years - so I knew this one would be right up my alley.

Initially, I thought it was a bit on the long side - but I ultimately appreciated that. Both parts of our main couple had their own storylines and obstacles to overcome, and I felt the author gave each of them their own time and stories - while also giving us a fantastic romance. It never felt like too much - but felt like we had whole, complete characters with independent stories outside of the central relationship.

As for the relationship - I truly enjoyed our friends with benefits, to actual lovers journey; you got the longing for more from both Nik and Isabelle, to the emotional outburst when they couldn't hold it in any longer. Plus, the steamy scenes were literally perfection.

I've already gotten the other books in the series on Kindle Unlimited - so am excited to spend a bit more time in this world and with these characters. But truly, I don't know if anyone will be able to top Nik for me.

3.75 ⭐️ | 📚 | 🌶️🌶️ (2.5)

First of all, thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyage for an ARC copy of Wicked Serve in exchange for an honest review.

This book is very cute while also being emotional. I thought that Nik and his background were written well and respectfully and I enjoyed his character, although something was holding me back from loving him. Isabelle was a very strong and empowered female lead and I loved her, except a lot of her “quirks” seemed very childish. I had to keep reminding myself that these characters are SO young so some of the things that seem juvenile to me as a 30-something, likely aren’t juvenile to someone so much younger.

I think the thing really holding me back from loving this book was the pacing. In theory, this book has everything: great characters, decent plot, development and emotion, found family AND real family, hockey and spice and usually I fall head over heels for books that check all the boxes. However, I found myself kind of bored in the middle and towards the end.

Overall though, this was a great wrap up to the Callahan Sibling series and I highly recommend for readers who are fans of Elle Kennedy and the Off Campus & Briar U series.

Final Note: I think since I know nothing about Russian customs and culture, it threw me off that Nik seemed to have about 100 names. But maybe that’s just me

One of those impulse requests because I'd seen stuff about this author on social media, and I'd listened to the other books in this series.

I'm still on a bit of a romance hiatus, despite the number of romance ARCs on my NetGalley shelf. I liked that Nik came back, thought I listened to the books so long ago before work got crazy pants, I barely remembered him. I liked getting to hear Izzy's story since she has little cameos in the other books.

It's definitely not as much of a standalone as the others can be. The brothers and little plot points in this book are references to huge plot points of the other books in the series.

Overall, it was fine. Glad I finished out the series. Thanks, NetGalley!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for this ARC.

I liked the potential of this book from the start, it was a secret dating but also friends to lovers which was really sweet.

What didn’t quite hit for me was

*the length of the book - it was too long. About 200 pages too long.

*you have to have a background understanding of volleyball to care at all about the VERY frequent purely volleyball scenes (which didn’t add a lot to the plot).

*the characters act very immature in their relationships, but then extremely mature with their sexual relationship. It was a bit confusing to keep up with especially since they are only supposed to be college age.

*the emotional trauma of the male main character and his mental health is used as a flimsy plot device instead of deep diving into the seriousness of the topics and creating a real narrative around it.

Overall, I think this was a great end for the Callahan sibling series for those who have read the first three books. If you are not invested in the series, this may not be a good read marketed as a standalone.